[Klug-general] Improving KLUG Meetings

[James Morris]

On 26 February 2011 17:37, Luc Tidy <luc.tidy at gmail.com> wrote:
> Improving KLUG Meetings
> 26th February 2011
> KLUG meetings are constantly evolving, and this process should be encouraged
> and up for discussion. In a rather ad-hoc meeting we decided to approach a
> few issues - primarly Meeting Content & Organisation.
> We would appreciate your feedback and hope to plan meetings on a quarterly
> basis to discuss progress.
> Meeting Content
> - Formal talks from members or guest speakers
> - "Show and Tell" section for people to present things they are working on,
> new software people might not have seen, web services etc. This could be
> mandatory and as a way of introduction to the group.
> - Q&A / Problem Solving Sessions / Development Discussions. This could
> encourage break-out groups post talks.
> - Discussions / debates
> - KLUG Projects/Workshops?
>     - Certain caveats/code of conduct require consideration?
> - Lightning talks (though this may cross over with show and tell)
> - Themed events, e.g. Security, Web apps, Kernel internals, Interoperability
> - Drinks and Snacks
> Social Meetings
> To augment the "formal" quarterly meetings, around Kent, for social events
> like pub/curry etc. Held on a Friday night, or similiar. Previous attendance
> has dried up so requires opening up for discussion.
> Virtual Meetings
> - Virtual, supplementary meetings at scheduled times
>     - Includes people in hard to reach areas, or with an inability to travel
>     - Promotes use of IRC channel
>     - Investigate possible voice/screen sharing options
>         - Mumble/TS, Skype, VNC, GoToMeeting, YuuGuu etc.
> Organisation
> - If meetings are going to start later in the day, it has been suggested to
> increase their length so they take up the whole day, rather than being a 3
> hour stint that makes full use of the day impossible.
>     1100 - 1700
>     1200 - 1800
> - We currently have locations all over the place. Are there any central
> places that are particularly easy to get to by everyone using pubic
> transport?
> - A shared Google Calendar as a way of seeing when the nexts meetings are.
> ________________________________
> These points are a brief start of potential changes that KLUG could see in
> the future. The plan is to, from this basic discussion, extend into a
> formal, planned meeting at some point.
> tl;dr: What do you think of these? What would you like to see from KLUG?
> ~A collaborative effort of:
> Luc, Spode, Julia, Boudiccas


Formal talks are good for people who might actually do presentations
in their work, but I'm afraid my continual employment in situations
requiring zero interaction with humans and continual suppression of
human instincts for the sake of production cycles has caused my
presentational skills to atrophy - and they were pretty poor in the
first place.

So I like the sound of a more informal show-and-tell. I usually have
things to show and tell, though my interests don't lie in networking
or Ubuntu so I doubt anyone will really be interested.


James.